Building a Vibrant Living Future For All (#20): Amanda Sturgeon, International Living Future Institute

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“Nature can be this unifier of hope and a connector among all of us.” – Amanda Sturgeon

Amanda Sturgeon is the Chief Executive Officer at the International Living Future Institute, an organization imagining a future of green communities, where green buildings produce their own energy, process their own waste, and handle their own water. She is a leader in the movement to have a world full of living and zero energy buildings and communities. Amanda is a TED speaker and in 2013, she became a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In 2015, she was named as one of the Top 10 Most Powerful Women in Sustainability and received The Women in Sustainability Leadership Award. She is the author of Creating Biophilic Buildings and has previously held roles as a sustainable building architect at Perkins & Will and the City of Seattle.

Amanda joins me today to discuss how we can build a vibrant living future for all. She shares why we need to stop thinking about what we can’t do and instead, focus on creating green communities and innovations and reconnecting with nature. Amanda shares the motivation behind the Living Building, Living Community, and Living Product Challenges as well as the meaning of biophilic design. She also discusses the proof case for creating living buildings to overcome the mindset of building homes simply to make a corporate profit.

This week on The Last Environmentalist Podcast:

• Creating a future centered on local economies, human innovations, and reconnecting with nature
• Moving the focus from what we can’t do to what we can do
• The Living Buildings, Living Communities, and Living Product Challenges
• Why we need to reconnect with nature and how nature inspires the creation of living buildings
• Going beyond green buildings and the monumental shifts we need to make
• Inspiring people to live and exist in a different way
• What biophilic design means and connecting outside with inside
• Justifying the case for creating living buildings
• Changing buildings from simply being economic ventures 

Connect with Amanda Sturgeon:

• International Living Future Institute
• Amanda Sturgeon on LinkedIn

This episode is sponsored by Simbly Furniture

Simbly Furniture is the maker of modern, environmentally responsible, American-made furniture. Simbly’s sleek tables, benches, and desks are made of FSC-certified sustainable wood and shipped directly to customers from a family-owned near Asheville, NC.

To learn more about the beautiful, environmentally friendly contemporary furniture at Simbly, visit Simbly.com.

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